So, I decided to try and give whipped soap a try. Because, I'm silly
that way. I've spent so much time lately filling orders and doing
production for shows, that I wanted to have a little silly soap time. So,
I made Whipped Strawberry Cheesecake Pastilles. The process is really
pretty fast and easy. Rather than having to melt all the hard oils and get
everything to the right temp before doing any of the process, this entire
process pretty much happens at room temperature.

I start by adding the hard oils, and beating them at high
speed until fluffy. Much like making frosting. This part of
the process is pretty forgiving. I actually had to stop because it
was Boy naptime and I didn't want the mixer to keep him awake. So, I
put the oils in the fridge, and then came back to them later.

Next, I added soft oils (castor and olive) and gel
color. I beat at medium speed for about 5 minutes, then high speed
for 5. (The mixer is a bottom rotary that I picked up for about
$30.00 because I didn't want to use my KitchenAide for soap and lotion
projects. )

Added the NaOH and whipped, whipped, whipped. Note the
color change from the sodium hydroxide. That was a bit of a
surprise. You can also see how the volume has increased from the
first picture. The soap "rises" to about double its
unbeaten volume. (Maybe a little more.)

I spooned/stuffed/pleaded the fluffy soap into a cake
decorating tube, and using a large star tip, made "cookie-size"
pastilles. This batch, which used about 19 ounces of oils, made 40
cookie size pastilles and about 20 small pastilles about the size of a 50
cent piece. (I ran out of baking trays for the big ones...thus the
little ones that I could fit in the empty space. Hee.)

Theoretically, they should be dry in about 10 hours, and I'll be able to test
them. The fragrance is holding beautifully, and it's a fragrance that I've
never been able to use in CP soap because it seizes like a mad dog.

Kathy Miller is the goddess of all things soapy. Here at her page (http://www.millersoap.com/), she's got recipes and instructions and all kinds of goodies. At the last soapmaker's convention I went to, just about everyone talked about how much they learned from her site. I recommend starting research there.

When you're ready to try a recipe, I'll be glad to share any of mine with you, or resize one of Kathy's down to a test size batch for you. :)

The pink poufs above is a pretty small batch, and you could use the same recipe in a traditional process which would entail the following:

Mix your lye and water together, and let it sit until about room temp.

Heat the hard oils. (If you don't have palm, you can use "healthy start" shortening, it's palm and soybean, and will have the same SAP value, so you don't need to change the lye. Crisco, as long as it doesn't have a "defoaming agent" would also work for the same amount of lye.)

Once the hard oils are melted, remove pot from heat, add soft oils.

Allow the oils to return to about room temp.

When both items are about room temp, you slowly (carefully) pour the lye water into the soap and stir, stir, stir. If you have a stick blender, that will speed up the process, but don't overblend, or it'll be hard to pour. Add essential oils at this stage. If using fragrance oils, I suggest adding those to the oils before adding the lye.

You can use a cardboard box...for instance, this batch should fit in a shoe box...as a temporary mold. Be sure to line it with cling film, then wax paper. Also, tupperware works...anything that can handle temps around 200 degrees will be ok. Just be sure to line whatever it is, so you can get the soap out easily.

Your soap has "traced" when it reaches the consistency of pudding. (That's actually a medium trace.) When you can dribble some off your spoon and it stays on the top of the soap, you're ready to pour.

Pour soap into mold. Cover mold, and insulate by wrapping towels around and over it. Leave it alone for about 24 hours...voila, soap. :)

Oh, I tested one of the pastilles today, and it did lather, so it does look like I made soap, but it looks like it probably takes as long to cure as traditional soap...about 3 weeks, rather than the shortened amount of time I thought would happen. Still, it's a fun and easy way to play. Just be sure to get yourself some rubber gloves *before* trying to fill the cake decorating tools. :)